Shiner Holiday Cheer

Few of you may know that I lived in Austin Texas for just shy of a decade. When I moved there from Richmond virginia in 2003 it was all imports, Lone Star, Tecate and Shiner! There were 2 amazing spots to get craft beer, The Draught House and Lovejoys. Both of whom had at least 4 house made beers on at all times! My how times have changed....for the better!

The record store I worked at the entire time I lived there used to always have Shiner Bock kegs for their in store performances.... I never was too keen on "Texas music" but who was I to turn down free beer!! Needless to say, having met my wife there and having my amazing kid there coupled with 8 interesting years in Texas I always have a soft spot for Shiner beers!

Holiday Cheer; this is Shiners Holiday release, clearly. A Dortmunder style lager brewed with Texas peaches and pecans (puh-cahns if you're a Texan and pee-cans if you're a outsider like me). 

The beer pours a deep dark amber and had a decent but quick fading head. The smell is all peaches. But not over sweet artificial peaches... Kinda smells like what I imagine a farmer picking a peach harvest might smell! The taste is subtle on the peach, again it's there but not overly sweet, and some very nutty charichteristics from the pecans. I'd say the the beer ends on the palate with the perfect marriage of the peaches and pecans and leaves a nice wet mouth feel.  

Shiner really does know how to capture Texas in a bottle. Either that or I'm just being too nostalgic. Either way though, Holiday Cheer is sure to be a staple in my fridge this season!

Damn near 4 out of 5

As always friends, cheers!!

Jay

Boulevard "Reverb"

Hello friends!! First of all, it's great to see you after more than six months! Wow, a lot has changed for me but this is a beer blog and not a Jay Blog... So on to the beer shall we!!

Pilsner, a style that to the palate is so incredibly simple and void of anything characteristic.... Yet brewers must get it right which I'm assuming is an arduous task. Throw on top of that the "Imperial" moniker and you have yourself a bit of a conundrum... How does the brewer pack imperial flavor into the pilsner style without just creating some kind of light bodied malt liquor?

Reverb does this almost without question! Smell is big biscuit and slightly phenolic and on the palate it's all malt with a full, thick and wet mouth feel! This beer ends as it begins... An amazing pilsner stepped up like 11 notches... 11 for the musical reference on the label!! 

As a former record store geek I greatly appreciate the rock and roll "Spinal Tap" reference!

I shall digress now.... Boulevard are making some of the best, most consistent portfolios of craft beer today. The recent merger between Boulevard and Duvel Moortgat has caused some all Americans to throw their hands up and write off Boulevard forever... To those folks I say, please reconsider!! I'm not sure you're aware of how much amazing beer you're going to miss!! :)

As always, thanks for reading and three cheers to the brewers who are making all these great brews!

Jay Metzler